Alphabet
by MiyuTanemura
Summary: Series of oneshots, one per letter. Subjects vary but the pairing remains the same; Natsu/Gray and Gray/Natsu. Drabbles.
1. A - Angel

Disclaimer: Don't own anything or make any profit. I just write for fun.

Betaed by Subkulture. Thank you so much, my dear. =)

Feel free to leave feedback.

Note: Each chapter will have the appropriate warnings. So, for this chapter the note is that it's AU.

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**A - Angel**

As the world was engulfed by flames and dust Gray felt his legs weaken under him. Without noticing it, he found himself fallen to his knees, pain radiating from them as they had impacted heavily on the hard cement.

It was… it was over.

The world was coming to an end and he only could _watch_ as it happened.

Grey permeated the world and Gray couldn't see beyond the thick glass pane through which luminosity came. Above him there was a hole in the ceiling – through which he had just fallen earlier. He leaned forward, his hands curling on the rough cement as if he was attempting to dig them through it. His breath was coming in harsh wheezes as a gripping fear caught him. His beloved cold wasn't acting as it should – as something that he knew and used – but instead as a crippling vice that wouldn't let him go until he was crushed.

"No…" he let his head tilt forward and shook it in disbelief. "No, it can't be. I can't have-" His voice failed him and he squeezed his eyes shut. "I can't have just started the end of the world…" he admitted to himself in a whisper.

The crunch of gravel made Gray focus in something beyond his disbelief.

"Yes you did."

A voice startled him into sitting back on his haunches and look around in search of his interlocutor.

To his right a pink haired young man dressed in a black coat was standing. His face was politely neutral and he was looking into Gray's direction but Gray had the feeling that he was seeing something else, beyond him.

"What do you mean-" he started to say in a snarl, fury coursing through his limbs in a way that startled Gray shut. "Who the fuck are you anyway?" Gray asked in a terse tone as he scrambled up while leaning against the glass surface before him.

"Me? Nobody. Well, I'm someone you called upon. One of the many…" the other said nonchalantly.

"One of the many-?" Gray asked in shock as he looked out the window.

An explosion disturbed the dull greyness on the outside, coupled with an orange flash that made Gray squint. He turned towards the other.

"And now, what does this mean?"

"To everything that has a beginning, there must be an end…" the other said distractedly, a large ball of fire forming in his right hand.

"What's that-?" Gray started asking before a colossal noise shook the entire building and large chunks of ceiling started falling down. He felt heat overhead and when he looked up the fire conjured by the other was burning above and protecting him from the debris that threatened to fall on him. It consumed everything and remained above Gray until the building had stopped shaking and there was no risk of anything falling anymore.

"Why did you do that?" Gray asked, voice tight.

The pink haired one beamed at him and approached leisurely.

"You're needed. Come on." And he extended his hand to Gray, who was still kneeling.

Gray gulped as he looked at the hand and then at the other man. With a slightly tremulous hand he grasped the other's and was hoisted up. In that moment a sudden brightness filled the room, coming from the other and making Gray shield his eyes with his free hand. It was coming from the pink haired one.

A scorching hot touch on his shoulder brought Gray's body aflame and he knew no more.


	2. B - Blister

Beta by Subkulture.

Feedback is, as always, appreciated.

Note/Warning: Illness.

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**B - Blister**

Seeing the wall of green flames coming towards him had Gray ducking to the ground for cover. He managed to dodge the first wave, but was caught unaware by the speed at which the second wave came.

It hit Gray dead on. A big cloud of vapor formed, the fire eating away at the protective layer of ice Gray had created to protect himself. It acted fast. Too fast and before long the fire had gotten to Gray.

Heat as he never had encountered – and that was quite something given his usual fights with Natsu, the dumb fire mage – hit him, searing at his skin. Gray managed to put his arms up, protecting his face but it was too hot, the flames consuming Gray and burning his skin until his body was screaming at him.

A silky coolness surrounded Gray, then. Giving him his much needed relief and with it the calming embrace of oblivion.

#

Seeing Gray pale and lying down in the small cot, among the white linens, at the infirmary didn't sit well with Natsu. Nor did the bandages that currently covered most of his friend's body, making it so that his sickly pale face was nearly the only skin visible.

Natsu was pacing alongside the corridor that led to the infirmary, his aggravation having him being thrown out of the room just moments before. But it wasn't just aggravation that churned within him. There was also a good amount of guilt. He was remembering when they got to Gray, him lying on the floor sodden wet from Aquarius' attack. His skin was angry red.

Natsu saw red when he saw that his friend was down and hurt.

He turned around towards the enemy and did quick work of defeating him, hurrying towards where his friends were surrounding Gray's prone figure. They had turned him to his back very carefully and now the girls were discussing the best way to move him to a safer place. Natsu nodded to them and knelt, one hand extending to touch the other on a piece of skin that wasn't burned or showed blisters already. However, as he touched Gray something strange happened. Before his own eyes the skin changed. Drying and crinkling and then filling with fluid. All in a matter of seconds.

When they finally had taken Gray to their inn room, Wendy quickly set to work on taking care of the ice mage. Alas, there was something else in the flames that had the blisters actively resisting healing magic.

The blue haired mage tried her best but Gray just didn't respond the way he was supposed to.

They went back to the guild and Gray was placed in the infirmary. He was given a potion to sleep and poultices were rubbed on his body. They did help…

Then, Wendy had told them that the blisters were magical and they were draining Gray. Both from his health and magic. She had been trying to counteract that but, so far, her efforts had been for naught.

Gray was on the razor's edge.

As Natsu mused about this, the door opened and a somber Lucy exited the room. Natsu tilted his head slightly at her, questioning, but the only reply was a headshake by the blonde.

Natsu punched the wall, not noticing the bits of plaster falling around his fist. Too many thoughts coursing through his mind. But, above all, he couldn't believe it.

It _couldn't_ be.


	3. C - Cut

This chapter is unbetaed. Many thanks to BlackSignofDeath who gave me the push to post this. I hope you're doing better honey and I'm concocting something in hopes to cheer you up. ^^

Feedback is appreciated, as always.

Warning: Cutting, depression, AU.

Note: This chapter is a sort of follow up to a story I wrote, called _Watch me Bleed_. It's not necessary to read it to understand what's happening here but it might give the mindset.

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**Cut**

The first red drop splattered against the white porcelain of the washbasin. It was followed by a few more which landed to the side and on top of it, right before sliding down the drain. Gray stared, blankly, at the red trails that flowed down his arm and the white porcelain.

The numbness was coming back to his mind, preceded by the now familiar waves of pain. The nerve endings of his arm were screaming at him, shooting a feeling that was as fast as it was hot up his arm. His brain was receiving the signal for _pain_, Gray knew it and in the few moments of the beginning he had felt them but the blankness was engulfing him. He yearned for this blankness, it numbed the pain that was still so raw, so deep inside.

Lyon had gotten back and, as expected, blamed it all on Gray.

That... that had been hard to hear despite Gray knowing that it really had been his fault. If he hadn't asked her too return home earlier, it wouldn't have happened. Wouldn't have happened to _them_. And they might have continued to be a family.

The blade slipped from Gray's fingers and fell to the floor, still Gray didn't hear a thing.

Yells were coming to him, cutting around the edges of his blankness and replaying in his mind all over again.

Lyon's words.

They shouldn't hurt him this bad and he would have never said them in front of Ur but - that would forever be the crux of the matter - she was no longer here.

That truth rose a new wave of agony, making Gray gasp, no longer being able to breathe. He clenched his teeth and tried to force himself to calm, steady his breathing. He couldn't have a crisis now. Not today when _they_ were all coming to her funeral. Not when doing so might taint her memory somehow.

Gray stepped back and knelt, groping blindly on the floor, trying to grab the blade that had fallen under the small cabinet.

He got it.

Standing back up again, Gray prepared himself to make another cut, make his body be testemony to the differences occurring within. The ones he had so far weren't enough to calm the inner turmoil so a new better might give him both the moment of respite he needed so much before going out there and facing _them_, and be a new sign of the differences, this new path.

But he didn't want to go out.

Out there it was too strange. He was completely disconnected from everybody. The acquaintances, the so called friends, the neighbours - they didn't understand.

Gray didn't fit anymore.

It was as if Ur's plane crashing had taken him from reality - a world with colours aplenty had turned to only hues of grey, which were complemented by red every now and then.

Gray tossed the blade at the wall and let himself crumble down to the floor, his head ending up craddled in his hands.

_What was he going to do now?_


	4. D - Death

Disclaimer: Don't own anything. This chapter was betaed by my dear friend and enabler, Subkulture. Thank you, my dear.  
Feedback would be great, as always.

Warning/Note: I think that the title kind of gives up the warning but, yeah, main character death.

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**D – Death**

It comes unexpectedly, you don't even notice it at first but, after some time, you realize that it was too much.

One attack too strong.

One hit too many.

And your body doesn't take it anymore.

At first it is wave after wave of pain, rippling over your body, spreading throughout your nerve endings in such an overloading way that you can barely comprehend it.

Pain keeps throbbing on your limbs as you fall. It was to be expected that you would feel something; the pointy rocks, the gravel and litter that are piling on the ground. But you don't feel a thing. Only what's going inside your body.

You look up towards the grey mists that envelop everything. Will you be found? Your breath stutters past your lips, wispy little clouds that get lost amongst the grey overhead before long.

The pain grows, builds up until it reaches a point where it just… stops.

Your eyes widen slightly for the pain has gone. Logically you know that it makes no sense. It shouldn't have decreased but – oh.

Oh… the numbness.

Your eyes close in what could appear to be resignation _but _you're not the kind of person to go down without a fight, are you?

Yes… you still want to fight but there isn't a single drop of anything resembling energy to allow you movement. The numbness is all-consuming and it's ironic that you, an ice mage who's used to very cold temperatures, are being enveloped by this cold, so similar to any other you've already weathered.

There is movement and your eyes open, just the slightest bit.

There is Natsu.

He looks a little rough for the wear; his hair is singed and he has a nasty bruise comprising the left side of his face. He looks frantic and his lips are moving yet, you can't hear a thing.

Your eyes close – since when has it become so difficult to maintain them open? – but he shakes you roughly. Or, at least you admit that it is roughly given the way your vision is moving, once your eyes open.

He grabs you but you can't yet decipher the movement of his lips.

_It's okay._ You want to say, a true euphemism and you both know it. But, the only thing that you probably manage is a grimace.

Your time is up.

And there's nothing you can do about it.

An insurmountable weight pulls your eyelids down and the numbness finally spreads out everywhere, freezing your being and tightening around you.

And then, there's only darkness.


End file.
